Doing Things Mechanical

I thought this week I would write about some technology I have been involved with in my life. I have always been interested in mechanical things.

Trains
I loved trains, especially when we had to stop for them to pass by. We kids would then count the cars until we saw the caboose. Later, I joined a model railroad club and am still a member. In the early days when we were building the layout, I laid a lot of track, which we hand-spiked. Today, since the layout is all built, I run trains from the operating cab. The technology behind our layout is very old. We run DC and have blocks we plug and a big board schematic that we follow, especially when we cannot see our train because of the many tunnels.

During college, I began going up to the California Railway Museum, which is now called the Western Railway Museum, with two friends from the train club. This museum mostly had trolley cars that volunteers could run for the public. I learned to run the Sacramento Northern Birney car. There was also a Sacramento Northern electric locomotive (a steeple cab) that was fun to operate. Besides running locomotives and cars, we helped in the shop rebuilding cars and doing maintenance. We also helped build and repair track, as you can see in this photo. My future husband is also in the photo.

Computers
I was also early in using personal computers. I took one of the first classes at Cal State Hayward on computer programming. It was so new that the class was taught in the math department. He taught three languages at once and I learned BASIC and Fortran. A friend and I decided to build our computers using a kit. It was a CPM machine with two 8-inch floppy drives and a 6-inch monitor. My husband and I purchased a $2500 daisy-wheel printer. I never wanted a dot matrix printer. I was a writer and using WordStar was a godsend. No more retyping because of an error. I could edit on a screen! I have continuously used home computers since 1980, moving from DOS to my current Win10 machine.

#52Ancestors-Week 12: Technology

This is my seventh year working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow (https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/) at Generations Cafe.

I write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or My Trails into the Past. I have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways.

Copyright © 2024 by Lisa S. Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.